Editorial: Golf, water festival are opportunities

There are two events in our own backyard this week that are sure to draw tourists. And we all know how much we rely on tourism in the Lowcountry to supplement our local coffers.

First, the Players Amateur quietly kicked off Monday and Tuesday at Bluffton’s Berkeley Hall with practice rounds. The real action gets under way Thursday.

One change this year is the venue. The tournament is being played at Berkeley instead of Belfair Plantation for the first time since its inception in 2000.

We’re glad the tournament didn’t leave Bluffton or Beaufort County.

The Heritage Classic Foundation operates the Players Am and did what it did for the RBC heritage: Found a bright future with Berkeley Hall and a long-term arrangement with the club, according to our story in Sunday’s Bluffton Today and comments from Steve Wilmot, RBC Heritage tournament director.

It probably helps to have a couple of Bluffton residents who are members at Berkeley Hall to have founded the tournament. Duke Delcher and Tom McKnight should be commended for their involvement. And other members who put up money to help host the tournament.

We are sure Berkeley is up to the task.

Adrian Morris, general manager, said the Players Am is probably the most high-profile event the club has ever done.

The winner gets an automatic exemption into the RBC Heritage in the spring at Harbour Town Golf Links. Not a bad carrot to have to entice players to compete.

The Players Am is no walk in the park. It attracts a lot of the top collegiate golers and gives them a glimpse of the area with Harbour Town just down the road.

Morris and Wilmot know how to market a tournament and a course.

Tying Berkeley Hall, Bluffton and Harbour Town together for future PGA Tour players is a win-win.

We are ready for some golf. And we are betting that the players, organizers and fans are too.

If golf isn’t exactly your sport, you need not go any further than Beaufort for the 2012 Beaufort Water Festival that starts Friday and runs for 10 days.

The scene of the festival is historic downtown Beaufort and its waterfront park.

People from all over apparently flock to the event. This is the 57th year for the festival. Beaufort has long been a tourist favorite because of its downtown along the waterfront.

Come Friday you’ll see visitors and water festival attendees from all over.

We expect this year to be yet another success story for the festival. We do hope organizers and city leaders consider finding a way to track the economic impact of such an event.

The economic impact was hard to pin down as organizers, the Beaufort chamber or the mayor could not provide any cost analysis except to say they expect between 50,000 and 60,000 people to attend.

It seems logical to us that after all these years someone associated with the festival would be able to give a dollar figure in terms of benefits and what it means to the local economy. That would be a huge selling point for future festivals and to continue to market and promote it.

Organizers are quick to point out that the festival would not be possible without the volunteers and sponsors. But isn’t that the case with each and every festival held in the country.

Festival organizers and city leaders should put an economic assessment of the 10-day event on its to-do list after this year’s festival wraps. This added information would go a long way in giving the event even more credibility and add a little more meat to the bone.